Broken Barriers
by bluedoggie95
Summary: When Lord Voldemort returns to the world of the living, rather than the ghost plane he had resided in, the reikai government has no choice to respond, especially when one of their own is torn over the glimpses of the young Harry Potter's tragic past.


_The man approached precariously, the glint of the dagger gleaming ominously. The boy struggled against his bindings, trying in vain to escape. Pure fear shone in his emerald eyes as the reflection off his glasses showed the man raise the knife slowly. Then, without any hesitation the reflection-man flung the knife down into the boy's arm, eliciting a shriek of pain as he ruthlessly pulled it out and replaced it with a crystal vial to catch the blood. After a couple more than a few drops had fallen into the vial the man swiveled away from the boy and instead approached a pewter cauldron wide enough to hold a single human child. Blueish-silver fumes were flowing ominously from the cauldron and billowed an inch or so above the ground. The man dropped the contents of the vial into the cauldron and muttered something in a foreign tongue. His voice was slightly shaking as he spoke, already slipping the vial back into his robe. He was sweating slightly, although it was not warm in the slightest, as he took the knife up again, this time aiming at himself._

_He spoke more unintelligible words as the knife sliced through the air and landed on his arm, right where the tendons separated his hand from his wrist. Warm blood oozed from the open wound as he dug the knife in deeper, aiming for the bone. It didn't take long before the bone splintered and broke apart, and he tore through the rest of his flesh, leaving a fleshy, bloody stump in place of his right hand. He let out a terrible pain-induced scream as his hand fell into the cauldron with a sickening splash. Almost as soon as the hand fell into the cauldron, the blueish-silver fumes were replaced with a dark purple vapor that hid a large, dark shadow. The shadow quickly grew larger before it seemed the size of an average adult human. The shadow stepped out of the cauldron to reveal a sickly pale man. His dark red eyes seemed to stare right at me and I let out a sickening panic-stricken scream as the other two had done. _

She woke up with a start, heart pounding viciously in her chest, her breathing uneven even as she took in her surroundings perfectly. Nothing was amiss, or her keen eyesight would have immediately spotted it, so she allowed her body to relax. It didn't take much longer after her heart began behaving again and her breathing to regulate than her door slid open. A young man, maybe fifteen, stood in her doorway. A mere glimpse at him showed her that concern was written on his face, but when she looked again his face was as neutral and even as if he were discussing a critical business arrangement or playing a good game of poker.

"Aniue…." The word came out as easily as her breathe did and the man took only a split second to respond. He sat beside her on her fushido, his arms wrapped around her instinctively. She gave out a dry sob before breaking down into his arms; her small hands wound themselves into his shirt, holding him securely in place beside her, he stayed in place, softly stroking her hair until her tears subsided.

"Aniue?" she whispered again, this time her tone questioningly.

"Are you ready to talk about it, imouto?" he asked her calmly, his arms slackening around her.

"It was the same dream," she whispered, her hands also slackening in their death grip enough that she wasn't holding him there. It seemed to be a signal for dismissal as he completely let go of her and stood from her fushido and walked to the door. The girl sat there alone for a moment before she finally spoke again. "I'm scared," he turned back around to address her, his long hair catching the light of the hallway before settling once again.

"You do not have to be," he stated, his green eyes shining with unspoken emotion, "it was just a dream," he spoke those words as a reassurance but they both knew that it wasn't true. With her, it would never be 'just a dream' as he said it would. Still, the girl obediently fell back into the comforts of her kakebuton, covering herself with it before closing her eyes and awaiting sleep to take her away for the night. He himself walked towards the doorway before looking back towards his sister, her eyes were closed and her breathing deep and even, already in the trance like state before sleep would come. A soft smile ghosted over his lips.

"Oyosuminasai Kogitsune," he breathed out softly before walking out and sliding the door softly, making no sound as he proceeded down the hallway and into the living room. He walked over to the small side table placed besides his okaasan's desk, where the main phone had been placed. He could have just as easily walked into his room and used the phone his okaasan had given him but as his sister was a light sleeper he would've woke her up and this was the last conversation he wanted her to hear.

He picked up the phone before dialing the familiar area code that would bring him to directly to Koenma; he waited impatiently until the familiar voice of Jorge picked up the phone, he bit back any rude comments that his youko side was happily supplying, as he patiently, or half of him anyway, waited as Jorge rambled on about how Koenma was a ruthless slave-driver and that if he even made on mistake or took too long to get something done he would get fifty spankings before Jorge realized he hadn't called at one o'clock in the morning just to listen to him complain and dispatched him into Koenma's office. He listened impatiently at the load of static before Koenma's voice filtered in more clearly.

"Koenma-sama," his voice picked up a slightly more crisp feel while surprisingly maintaining the soft silkiness he naturally had.

"Konbanha Kurama, I trust you have more news?" Koenma's voice was youthful and he slightly mispronounced the 'r' in his name, a side-effect to him being an infant longer than Kurama had even been alive, including the thousand plus years he lived as Youko. He still had a couple hundred more years before he even reached the size of a human three year old's body, and ten thousands of years before he was mature, he even still thought that dating girls was 'icky'.

"Of course, my imouto had the same dream again," he responded calmly, idly twirling the spiraling cord of the landline between his forefinger and thumb. He paused to see if Koenma would respond before continuing. "The one with the teenage boy in the graveyard," he added, aiming to jog Koenma's memory. An exclaimed 'ara' and the soft rustle of crisp paper was the only reassurance that Koenma had remembered. The rustle of papers stopped and Kurama waited a moment before Koenma was speaking.

"The boy has been suspected and then confirmed of being the underage British wizard Harry James Potter… only known survivor of the vicious killing curse 'Avada Kadavra'… orphaned at age one and sent to live with none magical relatives.. The female being related to the late Lily Potter, mother of said child... family targeted by Tom Riddle or Lord Voldemort as he was called in later years... Potter-san repeatedly targeted since arriving at prestigious wizarding school Hogwarts… entering fifth year of Hogwarts… oh my… Kurama listen to this!" Kurama rolled his eyes, as if he hadn't been listening to him mutter sentences from the report the entire time. "…swears to everyone that Voldemort had returned from his unknown whereabouts and killed seventeen year-old Cedric Diggory… states that Triwizard tournament trophy was actually a portkey… him along with Diggory-san were transported to a _graveyard_… Diggory was immediately killed… Harry was then _tied_ to a tombstone and blood was _abstracted_ from his right upper arm…" he let out a low breathe that reverberated through the phone. Kurama closed his eyes for a moment, allowing it all to sink in; his sister's dream had come true, yet again, maybe now that it was solved she would no longer be haunted by that particularly gruesome glimpse of the past.

"Now that we know who's in the dream, what do you want me to do?" Kurama asked after he had opened his eyes again, his voice reflecting the tiredness he felt inside every part of his body. His eyes itched and his arms were sore from writing down every single detail his sister could remember from her bizarre dreams. Her latest one had involved the newly identified Harry Potter-san and some sort of demon that somehow sucked all the happiness out of you and left only the worst of your memories for you to view over and over again, while feeding of f your fear; the type that made even the Prince of Thieves shudder.

"What are we supposed to…?" Koenma's voice trailed off and Kurama heard the distinctive 'pop' as Koenma sucked on his pacifier, as common to the young shinmei as tapping fingers against a hard surface was to a normal human child. Kurama resisted the urge to hang up the phone to escape from the irritating sound; he despised any habitual sounds no matter if it were from a human, demon, or the toshishita shinmei. Especially the toshishita shinmei, he had enough underlying, annoying traits without the addition of a habit. The sound suddenly stopped mid-pop and Kurama tensed up, awaiting the fallout…

"I know!" Koenma was sounded thrilled, not a good sign as only experience could teach Kurama; any idea that made Koenma happy could only be worse if he were ecstatic. "I'm such a genius! I'm ecstatic! Genius, pure genius..." Why did Lady Fate torture him so? It is not as if he had stolen from her; after all he would remember it… Lost in memories of if he ever stole from Lady Fate, the one that had so cruelly took away his life and left him trapped in the Ningenkai fifteen years ago and then conned him into owing the toshishita shinmei. Perhaps a love connection of some sorts?

"…Kurama are you listening to me?" Lost in his thoughts, Kurama jostled slightly at Koenma's voice; he had completely forgotten that he was in the middle of an important long distance call that happened to revolve around his baby sister's dreams, which happened to cause her to be frightened over every little thing, especially graveyard. His mother had been heart-broken when he had told her that her daughter did not want to go to the graveyard to visit their father, and the little girl had been as well, sobbing into Kurama's garments almost immediately after the front door slid shut. "Hello?" Kurama noted how irritated the shinmei was and his years of experience didn't fail him when it came to coming up with a good enough excuse to appease the toshishita shinmei.

"Gomennasai Koenma-sama, it seems that I have tired out this human body of mine; they are not well adapted to staying up through the nights repeatedly," or be stressed out by a slightly more than crazy shinmei, not that it would _ever_ happen… Ignoring slightly more than rude comments from the youko side of his brain, he listened as Koenma's angered, choppy breathing pattern returned to a normal, even one; he had bought Kurama's quickly thought-out excuse.

"Well, I guess that can't be helped; just come to my office tomorrow," Kurama let out a sigh of relief, quiet enough that even if Koenma had heard it on the other sided he would merely pass it off as breathing. "And bring Yusuke, Hiei, Kuwabara, Yukina, and your little sister; they are needed for this mission; that is all." Koenma hung up, the low note of the dial tone being the only sound playing in the shocked kitsune's ear. Yusuke, Hiei, and Kuwabara were one thing, but to bring both his and Hiei's little sister into this was just asking for the young shinmei to be killed; Koenma had obviously lost the only marble he still had.

_Gumai Shinmei! _He thought, viciously throwing the phone back down onto the charger, anger and irritation mixing together and flowing through him; he walked back through the hallway, not nearly as quiet he had been earlier for now it was six and his little sister was probably up anyway; she never slept for long after a nightmare like that. His okaasan and keifu wouldn't be home until later this afternoon so he had to get everyone into and out of Koenma's by then, as they would be expecting all their children to greet the newest addition to the family.

"Aniue?" Kurama turned to see his young sister dressed for the day in a red and white yukata; as was custom for her in the summer. She would have worn a full kimono except it was a warm day and she obviously did not want to spend the full day in so much thick fabric that she disregarded the traditional clothing she would normally wear for such an occasion as this one; for their okaasan and keifu had a new child together, a lovely girl. After leaving the hospital they had went to Tokyo hospital to make sure she was completely healthy; which was a major concern as okaasan's cancer might have been hereditary, and were returning with akachan this afternoon. Hence forth, the young girl wore a simple, yet beautiful yukata to celebrate the homecoming of the healthy child.

"Yes?" Kurama smiled towards her, letting her know that she wasn't the blame of his irritation; she seemed to relax, and a gentle, slightly apologetic smile graced her lips.

"I wanted to apologize for waking you; I thought you would be mad at me," she explained, shrugging her shoulders slightly and smiling a bit wider, "but I can see that's not the case so I'm not going to apologize," she explained, smiling happily; she seemed to be completely normal now that she had a few hours to sleep off the nightmare. "So, since I know that you are not angry with me, I have to know; who were you on the phone with for the past couple hours?" she smiled at him innocently and yet he was not fooled; after all he was the one that taught her that trick; to use your natural charm and persona to persuade information out of someone, something he truly regretted at the moment as he thought of a something, anything he could use. He artfully avoided her gaze, trying in vain to come up with a proper excuse befitting the circumstances; he couldn't outright lie to her, not his baby sister, but maybe a half-truth or artfully constructed excuse that didn't exactly answer her question…

"The_ whole _truth please, Aniue; I don't want an excuse either," the smirk was still painted on the girl's face despite Kurama's failure to produce the information she seeked. Perhaps the truth this time would work? His youko side scowled and hissed at the mere thought of confessing the actual truth, especially to a 'kogitsune', as his fox side pointed out; he wondered if he would have a seizure after he actually went through with it.

"I was discussing your weird dreams with Koenma, he's…" he trailed off, unsure on how he should explain it to her. "Well, he's found the boy that the dreams were about, he wants us and Yusuke, Hiei, and Yukina to come to his office," he ignored both the shocked and relieved looks that crossed her face one after another in favor of continuing, "We ought to go find them, that we should," she nodded and grabbed his hand, practically dragging him onto the wooden porch; only pausing to allow him to get his shoes on as she did so herself. Kurama could easily tell that she was excited; she had been forbidden to meet up with Kurama and the rest of the group when they were on business and now she was a required necessity; he couldn't help but smile because she reminded him of how he acted before and after his first ever heist.

"Who first Aniue?" she was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, her red curls flaring out, her apple eyes lit with excitement; Kurama smiled down at her, gently grabbing her small hand and leading her downtown.

"Yusuke of course, he's closest and you only have to throw ice water on him, Hiei sleeps with wards, Yukina sleeps in Genkai's temple and I'd rather not go through there, and Kuwabara's sister is downright frightening in the mornings, so it's to Yusuke's house!" he seemed rather cheerful despite his sister's almost horrified look.

"Hiei sleeps with _wards_? How paranoid is he?!?!" Kurama chuckled as he led her across the street, and onto the apartment section.

"Very. Now come on Ginny," he stated simply dragging her up the stairs to Yusuke's apartment and stealthily letting himself inside with the key taped under the mailbox; Yusuke had originally wanted to tape it to the light bulb so that if anyone decided to try to sneak in he would get his hand burned. It was almost as hot as Hiei's weakest wards, at least for a completely ningen invention.

A few hours later all of the required people were gathered around in Koenma's ridiculously cramped office; every once in a while a blue oni would run in and grab a paper from the tops of the paperwork towers before darting back out. They were all impatiently waiting for Koenma to arrive as the one and only was late despite having Kurama all call them there in the wee hours of the morning. All of them were in various states, with the exception of Yukina and Ginny, of grumpiness; Yusuke was drench with water that was still freezing thanks to one of Kurama's essential plants, Kuwabara was upset that his aneue had happily beaten him from sleep as payback from having one of his friends wake her up, Hiei was slightly more amused than angered at the Kitsune that had underestimated his wards and set fire to the tips of his hair, and said Kitsune was angry because the tips of his hair was an unbecoming ashy black.

"Ohayou! Thank you all for coming to see me today," Koenma smiled pleasantly at the glaring (with the exception of Ginny and Yukina) group as he walked into his office and sat calmly in his chair; one of the rei shidousha entered the room and silently sliding behind Koenma's desk, her face a painting of apology.

"Aisumimasen, I was in charge of waking and dressing Koenma today so it is entirely my fault for his tardiness," she bowed herself low, in respect and then left the room quickly as Koenma's glare pierced through her back.

"Any way, moving on from that," he stated before clearing his thought in an obvious attempt at covering Yusuke's and Kuwabara's laughter. "I have done much research revolving the suspicious dreams that Ginevra-dono has been having and we have identified the victim of the numerous attacks to be Harry Potter-san and the assailant of all the attacks, as well as many more that have been dug up, to be Tom Riddle-san or Voldemort-Sama as he prefers to be called. In normal circumstances, the reikai government would not respond or show any interest in such foreign affairs but we came upon a discovery that to remain in the Ningenkai he sold his soul to the devils and become a human-demon of some sorts. Hence forth, it has been no less then thrusted into our own hands to take care of; now I pulled some strings with the Headmaster of the wizarding school that Potter-san goes to and he has agreed to –"

"Pulled strings for what exactly?" Yusuke asked, folding his arms up in front of his body in a defensive way, glaring down at the small shinmei.

"To go to England, of course; Kurama has already agreed for all of you," Koenma stated, his hazel eyes boring into Yusuke's chocolate ones.

"WHAT!!!!" the entire group screamed with, again, the exception of Yukina and Ginny; Koenma nodded gravely and then handed the plane tickets to Kurama.

"Your plane leaves tomorrow so I suggest you hurry and pack."

_Japanese Terms_

_Aniue- older brother_

_Fushido – type of Japanese bed_

_Imouto- younger sister_

_Kakebuton- bed cover, comforter_

_Oyosuminasai – good night_

_Kogitsune – fox cub_

_Okaasan – mother_

_Konbanha – good evening_

_Ara – 'ah'; 'oh'_

_Shinmei – god; deity_

_Toshishita – junior, younger_

_Ningenkai – the world of humans_

_Gomennasai – I beg your pardon_

_Kitsune – fox_

_Gumai – stupid_

_Keifu – stepfather_

_Yukata – light cotton Kimono worn in summer or used as bathrobe_

_Akachan – infant, baby_

_Ningen – human being_

_Aneue – older sister_

_Ohayou – good morning_

_Rei – spirit_

_Shidousha – guide (I forgot the name of the girls with the oars so I decided that this wasn't bad)_

_Aisumimasen – very formal way of saying 'forgive me'_

_Reikai – the spiritual world_

Phew…. I've been working on this chapter religiously the past three days. It's six freaking pages on word. Six! Okay, not that much but still…. It was really fun to make and I hope you guys like, 'cause I think it turned out pretty okay. To clear a few things up, I kind of strayed from the canon plot lines. The first is I made Kurama have a little sister, essential to my plot, so his father's death had been upped a couple years to when he was five for her birth to be possible. He died shortly before she was born, can't explain how because I am somehow going to associate it in with my non-existent plot line. Because of her, his mother didn't get sick until he was seven, although I'm not sure exactly when she got sick in the actual series…. And I know I used a lot of Japanese words and or phrases but that was to emphasize the point that this was in Japanese, and once they get into England the only words in Japanese will be the words they actually mean to say in Japanese, differing from the English.


End file.
